Is the Guppy about to drop?

The larger female Guppy, named 'Blackie' because her eyes are totally black, including the 'white' is looking bigger by the day and now the black Gravid spot at the back is showing a variation in colouring, instead of being totally black. And it's a huge spot!

Reading up and most people say that the tummy will actually square off as she gets ready to drop, but she's swimming normally, round as a barrel and feeding well. SO I don't think the drop is imminent. Not much else to report in the tank for today.

A new Bristles

After the sad demise of Bristles, the Bristlenose Catfish, last week, we've replaced him with Bristly, a cousin from the same breeder and also added to our cory collection with a Peppered Cory. So we now have the original Albino Cory, a Bronze Cory, a Julii Cory and now the Peppered Cory.

I know some (all???) other people would look down upon someone adding fish to the tank when there is still a reoccurence of white spot, but I look at it that adding the fish is risking further whitespot (the Peppered Cory came out of the tank that still had the remaining halfbeaks in it - which brought in the infection). If any of them bring in whitespot, either actively or passively by the infection catching on the net, then the treatment starts again. Looking at it the cautious way, I'd be adding white spot treatment as a precaution with every new fish, so where's the difference?

The white spot doesn't seem to be spreading much this time, so hopefully this will be the last round of treatment. I'm just waiting for a few more types of Cory to arrive into the shop (we've been waiting for weeks for the Panda Cory to arrive, if Sarah can ever got some off the supplier...), and she's ordered an assortment of Cories for next week - should be something for us to choose from then.

Finally, a peaceful day...

After the traumas of the last week I'm happy to say that so far it's been a quiet day. One white spot has appeared on the Halfbeak - a day longer to reproduce than normal, but a dose of the medication was going in anyway.

The water is beautifully clear now that I've removed the venturi from the Fluval 2plus - it was making so many tiny bubbles that the water wasn't as clear as I wanted it to be. Now with that just filtering and a separate air supply, the tank water is clear. I've got the air turned right down as the air curtain is too small for the powerful Tetratec APS50, even though that is underpowered for my 90 litre tank! Will pick up a longer air curtain tomorrow to try it out.

Having said that, I've also got an O2 kit and that's reading around 8mg/l with the new air pump. Just before I switched the pumps over it read 5mb/l - gone from bottom of the desired range to top of the range. Any higher and I'd need to add more occupants to use more oxygen!

Speaking of which, I did see the original male shrimp had mounted the original female shrimp - who has now lost her eggs. I'm not sure whether that is the normal breeding behaviour of shrimps, but it certainly looked like that was his intention. Maybe in a few days / weeks she'll me carrying eggs again. Hopefully the reason she lost the eggs earlier this week was just the reduction in oxygen levels and the next batch will go on to produce some babies. Even better if one could survive to adult-hood!

A new air pump

Went out for a lunchtime run and passed the LFS in order to pop in and get myself a new pump. Sarah recommended a Tetratec APS50 - supposed to be for aquariums 10 - 60l. Looking on the side of the box I should really have got an APS 100 - for tanls of 50 - 100l - but this thing is blasting out so much air I think that would have been overkill!

Also got an O2 test kit to check the disolved oxygen in the tank. Got carried away and tested all 3 tanks (tropical, coldwater and the one with the baby fish). The latter 2 are fine, but the tropical was on the low end of the OK scale before the new pump went in. Tested it a while later and it was at the high end of the OK range.

Only problem now is that the air curtain is too small and being blasted. I did swap in an air stone, but that couldn't cope with the air blast either and looked like a tyre blowing out underwater! I'm going to have to go back (once my wife is home, with the car - not running there again) and get a longer air curtain. The air stone rattled horribly against the glass so it couldn't stay.

It is supposed to be a quiet setup, but I think it's because the air blast is so strong there's a lot of noise from within the tank - can't hear the pump, the air bubbles are too loud. Maybe I should put on the regulator to slow down the flow of air...

Recovering from low oxygen

Increasing the air input yesterday seems to have helped the tank to regain it's balance. I did the water quality tests just before a 20% water change and the Nitrite was back to zero. I can only assume that lowering the air input lowered the oxygen (hence the shrimps at the top of the tank with the Guppies and the Danios being a lot quieter) and this affected the bacteria also. Makes sense, I suppose.

Unfortunately, the shrimp is no longer carrying eggs. Even I am not optimisitic enough to hope they all hatched and are hiding - I think that she was removing them yesterday as I was trying to recover the oxygen levels. Maybe as the Oxygen dropped the levels got too low for the eggs and they died - just days before they should have been ready to hatch.

Unfortunately, it also looks lile the white spot is back! The halfbeak seems clear - he usually shows new spots on Wednesdays though so we'll see tomorrow. This time two of the Neons seem to have tiny whitespots. Will I ever get the tanks sorted and running happily?

RIP Bristles...

Whatever was wrong with the Bristlenose Catfish he's not suffering any more. After posting last night about him, I altered the pump and then 3 hours later found him dead underneath it. No real further clues as to what was wrong - an air embolism in his stomach seems to have killed him.

But also this morning I noticed the Guppies at the top of the tank, a cory swimming diagonally and the Danios didn't react to being fed. Instantly the air pump was switched back on, the pump raised so that it disturbed the water surface more and the temperature knocked back down to 24 Celsius.

We went to the fish shop to replace the Bristlenose and took a water sample, which she tested and said the Nitrites were up! Got home and checked for myself (to make sure I'm reading the tests properly...) and now I know I'm reading them correctly. The Nitrites aren't worryingly high, but it's a puzzle as to why they are reading. I'm guessing that maybe reducing the air supply has also affected the nitrifying bacteria, and they have not had enough oxygen to process the waste. I'm guessing, from O level Chemistry quite a few years ago, that the equation goes something like...

NH4 + 2O2 = NO2 + 2H20 (ph < 7 here, so it's ammonium - NH4, instead of ammonia, NH3)

2NO2 + 02 = 2NO3

So every 2 molecules of ammonium need 3 molecules of oxygen to be converted to nitrate... Probably wrong, I failed O Level Chemistry first time around.

Bristlenose - the jury is out!

Everything I read points to gas bubble disease for the bristlenose catfish, but it seems that a lot of the experts haven't heard of it and sometimes don't have any clue on the symptoms.

I visited a couple more aquatics shops today. One did sort of agree, but said the pump would not be at fault (maybe because I'd mentioned that I'd bought the tank and gear from them - not as a threat, just so that they might help me!). He suggested lancing the bubbles - but that wouldn't help the stomach, which is the main concern.

Over the road, they suggested the catfish had been eating pebbles or was simply fat or had kidney failure or an extremely fast growing tumour (which has now stopped growing...).

Discounted the pebbles - it's perfectly round, not lumpy.

Discounted dropsy (also hinted at) - no scales sticking out.

Discounted kidney failure and tumour - they admitted overnight was too rapid!

So nothing they suggested helped. So I'm continuing along the gas bubble disease route - it is described as highly unusual! Treatment is to stop the bubbles being created and get rid of what's there. Although the first shop did agree that an airstone would help, there were still a few small bubbles floating around the tank, so I disconnected that. One view I read today said that no air supplies are needed at all - just the movement of the filter is enough - especially with all my plants.

I've not removed the venturi nozzle - just the air inlet. Maybe I should, just to make sure it's not affecting the water. I'll pop up and do that once I'ce finished this entry.

I've measure his swelling! He's 6cm long and now 21mm wide and 15mm tall - with about half that height being the swelling below his stomach. He was hiding again today and has been moving about more. Some sites report that it can take a few days to start to recover - we'll just have to see. Off to remove that venturi completely now, just in case it's doing something it shouldn't.

Bristlenose still no better

The inflated Bristlenose still isn't any better yet - he's still a worry. But more evidence as to what it could be when he finally came out of hiding in the cave (I was surprised he could fit his stomach in!).

I noticed that behind his lateral fins and further back on his body there are a few tiny air bubbles. Well, not so tiny given his size. I searched these on Google and came up with 'gas bubble disease'. Basically, it's the fishy version of the divers' bends.

It's rare (typical) and caused by tiny bubbles in great numbers in the tank. Unlikely in most tanks - unless they are over oxygenated. Now that could be my problem - with so many plants, including 5 bunches of oxygenating weed, plus I was using the venturi air feed into the tank. The effect was air bubbles shooting across the surface and a constant stream of tiny air bubbles rising up the front of the tank - where the bristlenose catfish likes to feed... Every time I move a plant a stream of tiny bubbles rise to the water surface.

Instantly the venturi air inlet was removed and an air stone put into the tank. Went to see Sarah at the shop and she said she's had similar problems when pumps in marine tanks were allowed to become exposed because of a drop in water height (not sure how that works!). She said that remove the problem and he should be showing signs of improvement by the evening, and fully better by tomorrow.

Needless to say, by evening he's no different. Hopefully a few days will sort him...

Poor Bristlenose...

Not looking good for the Bristlenose Catfish following him starting to swell up yesterday. Yesterday his stomach looked like there was an algae pellet or small pebble in it. today he is even more swollen and looks like he's been pumped up with a bicycle pump.

He's spent nearly all of the day unmoving and hiding underneath the bogwood - floating upside down. I went to my local fish shop and she wasn't open - I was there 15 minutes after opening time, so was surprised... Went to the large garden centre down the road with an aquatics department and their expert said it sounded like the fish would be dead within an hour or so...

Well I gave the fish an hour then went back to my favourite shop and she was open, talking to a rep. They both agreed it's likely that the bristnose catfish is constipated, and suggested defrosting some bloodworm and dropping in some cucumber as close to him as possible. So on the way home I bought half a cucumber and dropped it in as near to him as possible, and that was the first time he moved all day - he swam away from the cucumber.

I followed this by dropping half of the block of bloodworm over him - by injecting it into the tank at high speed with a syringe! Must have covered him, then distracted the other fish by squirting more into the front of the tank.

But it wasn't until the evening that I finally saw him move!

Strange Activities

No idea what is happening in the tank at the moment - all of the shrimps are out for a change and the locah is hiding, whilst the Cory is still rapidly swimming around the tank. At the same time, one of the female Guppies is defending a space around the bottom of the tank - keeping all comers away from her.

And the Bristlenose catfish is stuck on the glass, head down and a stomach like a barrel! No idea what he's been eating - but it's a lot.

Maybe it's something to do with removing all of the oxygenating weed this morning and rebunching them.

Whednesday white spots...

Well it's Wednesday again, so time to report that once more the white spots have gone, again! It's becoming a weekly occurrence. Looking back over the blog, it's both of the last 2 Wednesdays that I've said this, so it looks like there's a pattern - let's hope this time it stays away!

The remaining Albino Cory is also going mad - since loosing it's companion it has been swimming around the front of the tank relentlessly. Everyone else is quiet in the tank.

The end of the Cory

After being convinced that the Cory was just settling into the tank and becoming a lot quieter, the one that I've been watching for the last five days was dead at the bottom of the tank this morning.

I actually didn't notice it at first. It was only that I could see through to the filter and I knew that the last few days it had been hidden by plants. Then I noticed some had broken free from their lead weight overnight and floated off slightly. I was moving these about and there was the dead Cory, underneath them.

Went to the shop to see about replacing it so that the other one isn't alone, but Sarah wasn't there. And when I saw the Albino Cories in the tank at the shop all but one were a lot quieter than when we first saw them. So I decided to give them a miss for a few days - there also seemed to be a lot less of them. Should have counted them - I think there were 6. If they are still OK in a few days I'll get another one, but also thinking of getting a Bronze Cory as a replacement - add a bit of variety to the tank!

Another quiet day...

Not much to report on the tank today - probably because I've been out since early morning and not been watching it. I'm a bit more confident that the sick Cory is actually just going more to a normal, quiet Cory, as both were feeding together. It's only 8 days since they both went into the tank and at first they swam everywhere together. Now they have grown up and hide away a lot of the time. The complete opposite of other fish who hide then come out, except for the upsidedown catfish, who has never come out.

I think I did see a flick of his fin yesterday, so I assume the upsidedown catfish is fine. I hope he's not outgrown his cave entrance!

The egg carrying shrimp continues to carry the eggs and is probably the most active off all of the shrimps. If there's anyone about, she's one of them. And the Guppy continues to grow as though hopefully she's pregnant.

Enjoying the tank

I'm really enjoying the tank, and watching everything grow. Even if there are a few traumas, such as watching the possibly sick cory. It's still skulking around the tank, although I think I have seen it eating. But it's hard to know whether I'm watching just one, or if they are taking it in turns to lay low.

But Bristles, the Bristlenose Catfish is growing well. I measured him at 45mm a few weeks ago and today he was stretched out cleaning the glass, and he's now 60mm in length. Not bad for a little fish that arrived 2 months ago and was a tiny 15mm long!

My other concern is the upside down catfish. He was larger when he went into the tank and we never see him. I think I've just seen a flash of fin from within his cave, so he's still alive. But if he's growing well, there's a chance he'll outgrow the cave door. He's not been out (that I've seen) for 10 days and it was a squeeze then to return to the cave. I suppose give it another week and lift up the cave and turn him out! The gap at the bottom should be big enough once the cave is lifted.

The local shop I use did have some catfish caves. Maybe one of them could be used. I suppose point it to the back / side of the tank where the entrance is quiet, but where we can peek into it when we want to.

The shrimp continues to carry her eggs and the new shrimps are finally starting to venture out - both took algae pellets today and hid away with them. So, apart from why aren't the Neons coming up to feed - though even when they had the tank to themselves they hardly fed - I think the tank is quiet & relaxing.

A quiet day...

Well the shrimp continues to carry her eggs (day 2???), the little baby danio (??) doesn't grow and the albino cory doesn't move, although I do wonder whether the two danios are winding me up my taking it in turns to settle on the gravel. I'm sure I witnessed them swapping over yesterday between quiet and active fish, and the quiet one does move around the bottom of the tank.

Apart from that, I mananged to shoot off a load of photos, now that some batteries are charged. Not loaded them to the computer yet, so haven't seen what they are like. Hopefully there's a few there of the egg bearing shrimp.

The end...and the beginning?

One of the Albino Corys appears to be unwell - it's sat around at the front of the tank all day, only moving when another fish has shifted it out of the way. Even dumping bloodworm pellets around it didn't arouse any interest, although the arrival of the other fish caused it to hide.

But on a positive note, I saw the largest shrimp at the back of the tank fanning it's swimmerets. I tried to convince myself there were little white dots on them, and even called my wife in, but she wasn't convinced.

But then the addition of a couple of algae pellets brought it out for the first time in a while. All of the shrimps have been hiding together around the bogwood since the addition of the new shrimps. Totally unsocial!

But this one came out for a favoured feed and then took a small piece up to a nearby plant and I had an excellent opportunity to admire the light green eggs covering the swimmerets. I did try to take a photo, but after 10 mintues I gave up looking for charged batteries.

But it does look like the shrimp is carrying eggs, so hopefully in a couple of weeks we should have a load of baby shrimps - although if I don't intervene, it will be a load of baby shrimps as fish food!

White spots off, again...

It looks like the white spots have dropped off the halfbeak and the loach, so another 5% water change and the addition of some medication should be nicely timed to zap the little parasites as they swim off into the water. And I'll be keeping the routine going to hopefully get any I miss as they continue their lifecycle to find their next victim.

The whitebeak seems to have a few whitespot scars, but I'm sure they will heal in a day or two. Then apart from the strange 'baby fish' in the second tank, which doesn't seem to be growing but has been joined at the surface by a swimming blob. I'm stirring the water a couple of times a day and continuing to add a few bits of baby food, but there's no obvious growth or changes. Maybe it's building up strength, but at this rate I could just be nuturing a little insect.

Whtie spot decreasing

I'm still watching the whitespot and it does seem to be on the way out, again. The loach seems to have lost all of his spots and the halfbeak is down to less than yesterday's 6 - I think only about half that are there.

It's time for another water change and top up of the medication tomorrow and that will continue until at least next Monday. Only wish I'd done it properly the first time! I'd followed the instructions, but somehow some got through.

Not much movement on the baby Danios - the main one is still there but there seems to be less dots darting about. In fact, the main one doesn't seem to be gorwing - I just hope I.m not nuturing some weird insect in it's own tank!

Monitoring the whitespot

The halfbeak definitely has more whitespots - there are 5 on his tail and 1 on his dorsal fin. All tiny - if that makes any difference? There are a few on the Loach, but the rest of the tank looks to be clear.

But I also slipped into the tank a couple of Albino Corys over the weekend and it looks lake the halfbeak has taken a nip out of the tail of one of them. The male Guppy also had the same shape nippied out of his dorsal fin too on his first night in the tank. It's a long, narrow shape - only the Halfbeak has that shaped mouth! Maybe it's his welcome to other males arriving in his teritory - the nice lady in the shop told my daughter that she thought we had a male and female cory.

We were intending to also add a pair of Panda Corys to the tank, but that stock didn't arrive last week. Might get some in a week or two, or might instead get something else. But the tank is getting rather full!

Still doing the alternate days 5% water change & addition of white spot treatment. But when I measured the nitrate over the weekend the level was between 5 & 10 ppm - so really low. Should mean that we can safely add a fish or two more.

More White Spots!

It's not just the halfbeak that has some more whitespots on it now, the Loach has also got a afew new tiny white spots.

It does make me worried that it's another phase, rather than the ongoing phase. But it is only 7 days since I started treatment, so it's not unrealistic that it might be the same infestation. In the original infection, from when the fish were brought into the tank, the 1 white spot dropped off on the 12th April, but it wasn't until 13 days later that I saw the white spot on the (late) female halfbeak and 9 days later before anyone else had it.

From this, I suppose that means the cycle is taking 9 to 13 days at my temperatures. I didn't complete the treatment the second time as the infected fish died and was removed. But it was removed 48 hours after the treatment was given - so another dose was due and I failed to give it.

I've not noticed any white spots on the other occupants for the last few days. So hopefully another week of treatment, with regular water changes, and the white spot should be gone.

On a positive note, the possible baby Danio is still about, although not noticeably larger and there are still a few random movements in the separate tank. I need to research the growth rate of Danios next!

White Spot

I continue the treatment for white spot, but am getting worried as the halfbeak, which had lost all of his spots, now has a few new (tiny) white spots on his tail and other fins. I can't see any spots on the other fish, but then they are all so active I could just have missed a neon.

I know it can take 2 weeks to clear white spot and these could be spots that were actually on him before I started treatment on Sunday, just 6 days ago. But it's depressing to see more spots appearing when I thought they were going. Let's just hope it's not a short lifecycle going very well - in the current weather the tank is reaching 26 / 27 celsius in the daytime (set to 24) so that will be shortening the life cycle a lot.

I read that the life cycle of the white spot is as follows:

The mature parasite (trophont) leaves the fish and settles on the bottom of the pond where it secretes a gelatinous cyst (tomont). Inside the cyst the cell reproduces by division to produce around 1000 tomites. The cyst ruptures to release the free-swimming, ciliated tomites which must find a fish host within 24 - 48 hours to survive. The tomites, also known as vagrant bodies, penetrate the skin of their hosts where they mature into trophonts. The whole cycle takes 2 - 14 days depending on water temperature.

It just depends how long the stage on the fish lasts. No water change today - after Thursday's 20% change. To worried about removing baby danios!

Growing On Tank

In the hope that I do have a few Baby Danios, I've moved the bottle of water, with it's one 'fish' and many moving blobs, to an old tank. I've also added some water recently taken from the tank as those bottles too also seemed to have some random movements.

It's hard to know whether this is right or not. It's not cycled, but there's about 8 litres of water and only a handful of microscopic fish. I've also added a stem from an 'oxygenating weed' to the tank for shelter and the beneficial properties that will hopefully take.

As I said yesterday, if only 1 of the babies grows up to be worth transferring to the main tank then I'll consider it a success. There are so many little blobs that hopefully that will be the case!

Quiet day in the tank really. Only point of note being that for the first time since Monday I'm certain we still have all 4 shrimps - for about 30 seconds all of them were visible in different areas of the tank. So the babies haven't been easten by the loach!

Baby Danios?

Just over a week ago I put some water aside thinking that the Danios had spawned, but what with the fighting and the fish I thought had spawned being returned to the shop as the ring leader (with all weight returned in hours of seeing her 'slimmer') and then the white spot, which meant a 20% water change this morning, I forgot all about the bottle of water until yesterday afternoon.

I was actually meaning to empty it out, but something made me look at the bottom of it and it was then that a tiny movement caught my eye. I'd picked up the bottle, so all of the gunk in the bottom was moving, but this movement wasn't a steady movement, it was random zigzags. But it was a tiny dot of a thinh, maybe 1 to 2 mm at most and not recognisable. Then I saw more, and more and more.

Getting quite excited about it I was using a torch and then spotted 2 or maybe even three shapes moving at the top of the bottle - but these were 5 to 6mm long and most certainly fish shaped. And careful late night inspection of the main tank with a torch in the dark revealed another of these tiny shapes.

So at lunch time it was back to my favourite fish shop, where I bought some "TetraMin Baby" food ground flakes. I'm adding a bit of that to the bottle and tank and will need to keep an eye on what's happening.

Having said that, out of the 2 or 3 larger shapes I saw last night I can now only see 1. It could be the same one all of the time or different ones. There's no way of knowing. But with dozens of little dots also swimming around the bottom of the bottle, there's a good chance of at least one or two surviving. The owner of the shop said she would expect it to take about 12 weeks before they are a 'decent size'. I'll leave them where they are now - I'll lose too many if I try to move them. But once they are bigger (hopefully...) then I'll move them into an old tank. OK, it won't be cycled, but I can start it with water from the main tank and its size realtive to the size, and potential waste output, of a few baby danios should mean that it's not too much of a problem. After all, they are surviving in an old lemonade bottle at the moment.

I expect this means that now I have to keep my eye on my waste water to make sure I'm not throwing out baby fish!

White Spot Are Off

Looking around the fish and it appears that most of the white spots have dropped off all of the fish once more. So I expect that means that the first opportunity to finish off the white spot is now, if not already passed. I'll keep dosing up for a while (instructions say just another 48 hours after last white spot) to make sure I get any that have survived in the next stage of the life cycle - when they try to reattach to the fish.

Plus there's going to be a good clean of the tank tomorrow morning. Somewhere between 15% - 20% water change - slowly for the sake of the shrimps. Hopefully that will also remove some of the white spot that are resting in the gravel.

Treating for white spot

Continuing the treatment for white spot with a 10% water change and more treatment. I did notice as the Loach was resting at the front of the tank a few spots on him, but two of the spots on the Danio have fallen off. So now's the time to be treating. Not sure whether the spots are starting to fall from the Neons as well.

Also noticed that the Loach kicked up a bit of dirt as it hid under its log, so will need to remove most decorations at the next water change and do a good change then.

Only seen 1 of the new shrimps today, although that could be both, just at separate times. And managed a sneaky glimpse of the Upsidedown Catfish - he had crept out of his cave ever so slightly! Maybe at the next clean I'll refresh his cave as well!

More Shrimps

The shrimps are doing well and with the reduction of the snails (I don't think there are more than 1 or 2 left!) the bottom of the tan hasn't been so tidy as it was, so I've added a couple of new shrimps.

At the moment, they are keeping themselves to themselves and hiding together under the bogwood. I expect the cave where the other pair hide is to scary for them - it's shared by the 2 catfish and the loach! They are only about 2cm long - so over what the loach will count as a mouthful when fully grown, but they look so small compared to the other 2 shrimps, which are actually only 2.5cm & 4cm each. But the narrower body shape makes them look a lot smaller.

Hoping they will thrive and maybe we're starting to form a community - who knows, get enough and they might breed...

White Spot Is Back

I thought last week that the white spot was back, but the victim died before I could treat her.

But I've now noticed the remaining (male) halfbeak and 2 of the neons have tiny white spots on them and the Polka Dot Loach is flashing it's right side onto the gravel and possibly the bristlenose is flashing (slightly) as well. Although, especially for the Bristlenose, I'm not convinced.

Whatever the situation with the larger fish, the smaller ones definitely have an infection, so in goes yet more treatment. This time, I'll not stop treatment 48 hours after the spots drop off - as per the bottle's instructions, but run the treatment a little longer. I expect that for the next 2 weeks (plus ???) it will be a 10% water change and adding treatment every other day. Need to get it cleared.

I done wonder if the ill loach was her hitting herself into the sides of the tank, or was the white in her mouth was also white spot?

Almost full...

The water tests this week have shown no nitrite and next to no nitrate, so we've added a few more fish, although we must be close to capacity.

2 Bloodfin Tetras and 3 Guppies (2 females & 1 male) have been added to the tank. The male halfbeak seems to be taking a lot of interest in the female Guppies - his fins are raised and he's showing some colour - what a combination that babies would be!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these additions are far more peaceful than last week's additions and don't start in fighting. Who knows - maybe they'll start breeding before too long!